Buffett: Climate change not causing more disasters

[jsr]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/buffett-climate-change-not-causing-more-disasters

Buffett: Climate change not causing more disasters
Mar. 3, 2014 8:27 AM EST

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett says the rate of disasters that Berkshire Hathaway's insurance companies see hasn't changed because of extreme weather.

Buffett said on CNBC Monday that he hasn't made any change in the way he calculates the likelihood of a catastrophe because of climate change.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. owns several insurance and reinsurance funds and often has to pay significant claims when natural disasters strike.

Buffett says insuring against hurricanes in the United States has been extremely profitable in the past five years because few storms have made landfall.

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Global warming may increase hurricane losses, Buffett says
By Barbara Kollmeyer
Last Update: 1:04 PM ET May 5, 2007

OMAHA, Neb. (MarketWatch) -- Global warming could increase hurricane losses for Berkshire Hathaway, therefore the company's catastrophe reinsurance businesses will charge more in future for such coverage, Chairman Warren Buffett said on Saturday. Global warming could materially change the probability of catstrophes, increasing both the frequency and intensity of storms, he explained. "Our exposure goes up every year because of what's going on in the atmosphere, even though we don't fully understand what's going on," Buffett added. This "could increase expectable losses from any given hurricane season by a factor of two, three, four or five. On balance it's probably getting more negative for us and we have to be careful. It would be crazy to offer catastrophe reinsurance at the same rate in 2007 as we did in 2006."

[greenman3610]

1. wtf